US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday defended the indefinite detention of hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said they had disclosed vital information about al-Qaeda.
Rumsfeld said interrogation of the prisoners had provided details of the group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and could help prevent future acts of terrorism.
In Washington, the Pentagon gave its first account of prisoners it was holding at the base, and said the prisoners included senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
"Enemy combatants at Guantanamo include not only rank-and-file jihadists who took up arms against the United States, but also senior al-Qaeda operatives and leaders, and Taliban leaders," said Paul Butler, a Pentagon official involved in Guantanamo policy, without providing names, nationalities or any specific evidence.
Rumsfeld also said the US would create a board to review each year the cases of prisoners held at the US naval base to consider whether they should be released or held further as a threat to US security.
Speaking to a business group in Miami, Rumsfeld called the continued detention of the roughly 650 Guantanamo prisoners without charge or access to lawyers a "security necessity, and I might add it is also just plain common sense."
"I recognize that in our society the idea of detaining people without lawyers seems unusual, detaining people without trials seems unusual. After all, our country stands for freedom and it stands for the protection of rights," Rumsfeld said.
But he said the prisoners were not "common criminals."
"They're enemy combatants and terrorists who are being detained for acts of war against our country. And that is why different rules have to apply," he said.
Butler said one detainee caught in Pakistan had links to a financier of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US and said the man tried to enter the US in Orlando, Florida, a month earlier on a day when evidence suggests one of the hijackers was at the same airport.
Another detainee was a bodyguard for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and escorted him to Tora Bora during the US-led war to topple Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and crush al-Qaeda, Butler said. Another was responsible for a grenade attack on a foreign journalist's vehicle in Afghanistan, he added.
The prisoners have been held for as long as two years after being caught in Washington's global war on terrorism.
Human rights groups have criticized their indefinite detention, the unwillingness to classify them as POWs, and the rules established for military trials of some of the prisoners.
Rumsfeld said that "the United States has no desire to hold enemy combatants any longer than is absolutely necessary," adding that holding them "provides us with intelligence that can help us prevent future acts of terrorism. It can save lives. And, indeed, I am convinced it can speed victory."
Rumsfeld said detainees "have revealed al-Qaeda leadership structures, operatives, funding mechanisms, communication methods, training and selection programs, travel patterns, support infrastructures and plans for attacking the United States and other friendly countries."
He said they have provided information on al-Qaeda front companies and bank accounts, surface-to-air missiles, roadside bombs and "tactics that are used by terrorist elements."
"And they have confirmed other reports regarding the roles and intentions of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations," Rumsfeld said.
The detainees are designated "enemy combatants," and are not POWs entitled to a host of legal rights. Countries holding POWs are obligated under international accords to release them at the end of hostilities, but the Pentagon argues the war on terrorism could last for years.
Rumsfeld said the US was negotiating to repatriate many who were deemed a threat but who were not targeted for tribunals.
Rumsfeld said the reason no Guantanamo prisoners had been charged or tried was because the priority had been interrogating them to gather information that could prevent attacks.
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